My Sony E475 has been dying a slow battery induced death for about the last year. It's pretty much at the point where it can't hold a full charge while turned “off” for longer than 24 hours. I'm mainly using for when I jog, so I don't need it to last hours, but I do need it to be ready to use.

Location: Large city in the southern US.Capacity: 8GB-16GBBudget: Under $100 USD, but I can consider slightly moreUse: Mainly for when I jog.Type: DAPFeatures:

FM Tuner is a must. I'd love an HD tuner, but I'm going to assume that's asking way too much.

The ability to load it up like a flash drive; I don't want to go through any music player app just to put files on a device.

Relatively light, under 55grams/2oz.

An easy to navigate menu where I can sort by musician, album etc. Basically I need to be able to navigate the menu while jogging.

Some sort of shuffle or play-list capability.

Sound quality and EQ are important, but I don't need something that is going to blow me away, just something that sounds good enough that it distracts me from the sound of my heart blowing out as I exercise.

Any other features are just gravy, or something to be ignored.

Display: I'd prefer a color display, current player is 320x240 and that seems fine. I would be okay with a non-color display if the menu is excellent.UI/Controls: I prefer tactile buttons, No touch. UI/Menu should be easy to navigateBattery Life: This is important to me; I don't need a lot of battery life, but it needs to hold its charge.History:

-iRiver T30 MX- Tough little player that still works just fine despite being 10 years old, good audio, and came with the most durable ear buds I have ever owned. Takes a single AAA battery that gives it maybe 10 hours play depending on back-light use; and more importantly can probably hold its charge for a year. The interface is extremely spartan, and the biggest reason I replaced it is it only holds 1GB.

-Sony E475- 16GBs, a nice color screen, good navigation/sorting ability, decent sound, FM radio, and displays album covers. It also has various shuffle modes that are loosely based on the kind of music that is played, like “energetic” or “evening”. I thought it was gimmicky at first, but it does seem to prevent jarring changes in the kind of music, so no going from a chill song to death metal. It does a few things that are useless to me as well like some pre-loaded games, movie play back, and picture display. I would still be quite happy with it, but about 90 days after getting it I started to notice it seemed to be losing a significant amount of charge while “off”. It's been a little less than 2 years since getting it, but now a full charge barely lasts past 24 hours when the player is “off”. If it sits for 2 days completely unused after a full charge it will be 100% dead. I've limped along with it for quite awhile, but it's basically at a point where if I want to use it I have to pay special attention to make sure it's charged. Frankly I don't want to be planning my activities and behaviors around a temperamental mp3 player.

I've looked at the Sandisk Sport and on the higher end (relatively), the Cowon i9+ as possibilities. I've seen some complaints on this forum about Sandisks crapping out after 1-2 years, battery and otherwise, which is concerning to me as I want something that's going to last, kinda like my iRiver (though my expectation is not the 10+ years it has kept going). I've specifically read things here about the sport version having some interface issues. But at $40 the price is certainly right. The Cowon i9 seems fine, but the price is a bit higher than I'd want and availability seems limiting. I'm pretty open to any suggestions, but I'd be very hesitant about getting another Sony. Perhaps it was that specific model, or maybe mine just had a crappy battery from the start, but I'm not really up for giving them a 2nd chance.